April was an okay reading month. Whether you count by pages, or books though, February was still better. I’m hoping I can get the groove back that I had in February, because I had fun that month. But here we are now in May, and I can’t go back and tell myself to put down the phone, or to get off YouTube.
I’m trying something new this month and will be going more in depth on my reading stats for the month of April. I will say, while February was my best month, April is my second best month. So let’s see how my reading went.
Stats
In my tracker, I count in books and pages. I’ve also separated book pages, and audio pages. Audio pages, are the number of pages read as an audiobook, and book pages are those read either in a physical book or ebook. Pages are only counted once the book is finished. For example, I haven’t counted any of the 300+ pages read from The Burning Sea because I haven’t yet finished it.
A very quick run down:
- Books finished = 3
- Books DNF’d = 1
- Audio pages = 1,478
- Book pages = 328
- Total pages = 1,806
I got the books from:
- Scribd = 1
- Gifted book = 1
- Google Books = 2
What I Read
The book I DNF’d, was The Queen of Blood. I was thinking about doing a review post for this book, but I’m not sure I will. In brief, I had issues with a few of the characters. One was seemingly put in just for some conflict, or to be a frienemy, or something I don’t even know. The character was then suddenly removed from the story. I suspect they will make an appearance towards the end, but I didn’t get there.
The Queen marked a Champion as disgraced after he called her out in private for loosing her ability to control the spirits and to keep her people safe. Yet he keeps giving her chances to come clean, and she consistently turns on him and everyone. Even after the Queen consistently turns on people, and does everything she can to hide her powers fading, the Champion follows her alone in to her chambers. As predicted, she turns on him. This is where I gave up and stopped reading, even though I think I had maybe 50 pages left. I just couldn’t take the predictability, and could never really connect with the characters or story.
Destiny of the Dead by Kel Kade was an anticipated release, and somehow I managed to wait until April to actually start the book; even though it came out in March. I found Kel Kade’s King’s Dark Tidings series which she self published. Destiny of the Dead is part of her Shroud of Prophecy series, published by Tor. I’ve been listening to the audiobooks and love the books. This is an apocalyptic fantasy. The world is coming to an end, except the one who according to prophecy can save everyone is killed at the start of the mission. Now his best friend has taken up the quest, but prophecy has said he won’t make it.
I gave this book 4 stars.
A Dream So Dark by L. L. McKinney has put L. L. McKinney on my list of favorite authors. I love this Nightmare-verse series. I do have a full review posted; but in short, since this is the second book you need to go grab A Blade So Black right now. If you are reading this, you need to stop, open another tab for your favorite book store, hop on your bike or in your car and go to your local bookstore or library and grab this book.
Since this is the second of a series, I don’t want to give away much more. I will say, I gave this 5 stars.
The last book I finished actually just before the end of the Tome Topple readathon, which was Assassin’s Quest. It is the only book I finished as part of the Tome Topple readathon. These stories seem to take forever, but I still find myself gripped by the plot. Even when I need a break from the slowness, I do still want to return later. I’ve been listening to her books in audiobook from Scribd. I’ve already saved off Ship of Magic which is the first book of the next trilogy, as part of the Elderlings world.
Those are the books I read in April. Stay tuned for my May TBR which will include mention of a couple readathons happening I hope to participate in.
